


Black Forest

by Jay_Crow



Series: Sander Statements [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (or at least horror-adjacent), Child Neglect, Gen, Horror, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Statement Fic, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 06:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20484119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jay_Crow/pseuds/Jay_Crow
Summary: Statement of Virgil Crawford, regarding the woods behind his childhood home. Statement given 16 March 2012. Audio recording by Thomas Sanders, Collections Overseer of the Usher Foundation.





	Black Forest

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure that I'm literally the only person interested in this crossover, but it wouldn't leave my head. I plan on doing one for each Side. This should be able to stand alone if you only know one fandom, but if you have questions I'll do my best to explain.

First off, I want to apologize for how shaky my handwriting is. I have pretty bad anxiety, which means that sometimes I shake under stress, and this is really stressful for me. So, sorry. But to get back on track, I want to tell you about what happened when I was a kid. You see, my parents didn’t really pay much attention to me. I guess they thought I was a good kid, that I could look after myself. Of course, that was my anxiety coming on early, but they didn't know that. So I was on my own most of the time. I didn’t have a lot of friends at the time, I think I was about 8? So I spent a lot of time either reading or exploring the woods behind our house. Calling them woods was a bit generous, it was a small grove of trees, but to a kid, that’s practically a rainforest. We lived in the Pacific Northwest at the time, so I was practically raised on stories of Bigfoot and cryptids. I would spend hours ‘hunting’ for monsters, to no avail, which I’m sure is shocking. But anyway, my mom usually worked late, and my dad stayed in town drinking until around midnight, so sometimes I would be out in the trees far past my bedtime. One night when I was out there, something was wrong.  
I’ve tried to convince myself for years that I was mistaken, that it was a nightmare, childhood imagination gone wild, anything. But I know deep down it wasn’t. I was out wandering around, and noticed that the little copse seemed much larger than normal. The trees looked as if they stretched on forever, pitch black shadows crawling between. I was scared, of course, but not enough to turn back. So I kept walking. And walking. Much, much farther than that grove should have gone. It was completely dark, with not even the moon or stars coming through the thickly grown foliage. I was stumbling over roots, unable to see where I was going. I was tired, and much more frightened than I had been at the start. It felt like the darkness was smothering me, like it would never let me go. Like it wanted to hold me within it forever. It was terrifying, and also strangely soothing. Eventually, I came upon an old hollowed out tree. It wasn’t really any different from the trees surrounding it, but I felt drawn to it. As I stared into the blackness of the hole in the old rotting wood, I felt as if it went down for miles and miles. An endless dark pit with no end. It felt as if I could fall and fall forever. And as I gazed into it, I started walking towards it. It wasn’t a compulsion, necessarily. It just felt like home, almost. I stepped closer and closer towards the gaping hole, until I was inside of it. It was just the right size for me, just big enough to stand up in. I kept walking in, until I couldn’t see the exit behind me. The blackness choked the space around me, clutching around my shoulders, sinking beneath my skin. It felt as though it went on forever.  
Then, I woke up on the ground beneath the trees behind our house. It was morning. To any outside appearance, I had fallen asleep there. Neither of my parents had come looking. After that, I stopped going out into the woods. That didn’t stop me from seeing that endless void in my dreams. 

Statement ends. 

Supplemental: As Mr. Crawford’s statement contains few solid details, it has been relatively difficult to confirm. Some cursory research showed that a Mr and Mrs. Crawford lived in Oregon around the time this statement seems to have taken place. However, there is no record of the couple having a child. Mr. Crawford himself declined to revisit his statement, as he has apparently started seeing a therapist and would simply like to leave this in the past, which is understandable. End recording.


End file.
